Untouchable Part 4
by ohiodreamz42gmail.com
Summary: This is the ending to the first book in the Mabien Frost adventure... I am having a horrible case of writers block trying to figure out how exactly i am going to end this.. So if you've enjoyed this book so far, please feel free to offer suggestions on how i should go about ending this.. I will read and respond to any and all messages offering advise on how to end this story
**Untouchable**

 **Part Four – Decisions**

 **Chapter 24**

"Are you sure they're still coming?" Shrock asked for the millionth time. It was shortly after midnight and we'd been sitting in a room overlooking the south lawn for a little over two hours.

"Yes, I'm sure." I replied in a very annoyed voice; I made another minor adjustment to the Rifle-Cannon's sights, of which I had positioned and aimed through a closed window that provided the best possible coverage of my enemy's anticipated route of attack. "Rifle-Cannon," was a term Shrock and I'd finally settled upon after another very long and exhausting debate.

"Well where are they?" Shrock was growing more annoyed by the minute. I knew patience wasn't his strong suit, but two solid hours of listening to his constant and relentless nagging was beginning to test my own.

"They'll get here when they fraggin' get here; now shut the hell up so I can concentrate!" I'd answered just a little more curtly than intended.

He was just about to say something else when my vox came to life, "Lieutenant Frost, this is Colonel Tacker." I held my finger up to keep Shrock silent.

"Go ahead."

"I've got good news and I've got bad news. Which would you rather hear first?"

"Spit it out Colonel, we don't have time for this." I snapped.

"The good news is; you were right about tonight. They're on their way

now."

"How are they coming in?"

"That's the bad news Lieutenant. That warship you told me about has just dropped out of the warp. It's currently on a direct intercept course with _The Emperor's Wrath._ Captain Shaw informed me that their current heading will place them right above this palace. He also asked me to tell you that they've detected multiple drop-ships ready to be launched from the enemy vessel."

"Drop-ships?! Did he just say drop- ships?!" Shrock stormed over to stand before me, "Nowhere in your entire briefing, did I ever once hear you mention anything about drop-ships!" He was absolutely furious, but I didn't have time for his shit. With lightning speed I whipped both hands up to his chest and shoved him hard; my armor enhanced strength threw him like a ragdoll halfway across the room. He landed in a heap against the wall, stunned, but completely unharmed as his own armor absorbed all of the impact for him.

"They aren't coming in drop-ships you fool!" He struggled to get up, "They're coming right through the front door exactly as I said they would. So sit there and shut your god-damned mouth while the grown-up in this room figures things out!" The forcefulness of my voice left no room for argument.

I pulled the vox to my mouth again, "What does Captain Shaw intend to do about the situation?"

"He plans to take them head on. He wanted me to ask if there's anything you need before he breaks orbit."

"Yes, tell him if they fail to deploy those drops, we'll never see our Marines. I want you to ask him to hold back long enough so they can. Also, call the nearest air-defense wing and order them to scramble their Thunder Hawks; I want them to intercept as many as possible before they touch down."

"Roger that."

Having successfully dealt with our current dilemma I turned back to

Inquisitor Shrock who was now up and positively fuming, "The marines will _not,_ be on those ships."

"And just how the hell can you be so god-damned sure Lieutenant." He spit the word, "Lieutenant" out so harshly that it sounded as if just saying it left a bad taste in his mouth.

It was now my turn to belittle him, "Well if you'd think about it for half a fragging second, I'm sure you could figure it out all by yourself. But since we're now so very short on time, I'll just tell you. Inquisitor, I can guarantee you with utmost certainty; that more than half that force will be destroyed before it ever hits dirt. I know this, they know this. Hell, even the Colonel knows this. You don't because even though you have more power than anyone I've ever met; you're still just another god-damned civilian and always have been. So, now that I've said that, go ahead and tell me why it is that we don't have to worry about the bloody drop-ships!"

He looked at me for a long moment before coming to understand exactly what it was I was trying to say to him, "There won't be any Marines on those ships, because they are far too valuable to risk being blown out of the sky with the rest of the fodder."

"Very good Inquisitor, I knew you could do it. When this is all over, you just be sure and remind me to give you a gold star for figuring out the blatantly obvious all by yourself!" Before he could say anything else my vox crackled to life again.

"Lieutenant, this is Tacker. Drop-ships out! I repeat; drop-ships out! ETA ten minutes. Thunder Hawks will arrive in just over six." "I take it we no longer have orbital support."

"Roger that. _The Emperor's Wrath_ is now out of range and is preparing to engage the enemy."

"How many?"

"Air-Defense is tracking fifty plus; all projected to touch down about four clicks north of here. We have fifteen birds in route; I estimate each of them can destroy at least two."

I showed Inquisitor Shrock a look of, "I told you so"; it was now pretty obvious things were happening just as I'd predicted. He could only stare at the ground in response; now fully embarrassed over his brief, but significant moment of panic.

Back to business, "Sergeant Raker, this is Frost." "Send it." Came his gruff response.

"Multiple drop-ships inbound; reinforce your northern line and tell your boys to lock and load. It's time to earn your paychecks."

"Yes Sir!" He responded with vigor.

I turned back to Shrock to say something else when I suddenly heard the telltale crack of a bullet fired from long-range. My vox immediately sprang back to life, "Man down! Man down!" It was the Sergeant with whom I'd shot the scouts on the roof.

"Where at Sergeant?"

"South side perimeter patrol, Sir." I heard the crack of another round. "Man down! We've got another man down! Same location! We have a sniper!"

"I'm on it Sergeant." I looked to Shrock, "Inquisitor, I need you to put your helmet on and change your HUD to start scanning the infrared spectrum. From this distance we won't be able to pick up his body heat; so instead I want you to look very carefully for the burst of light his bolter will give off whenever he fires another round. It will appear as a very brief, very white, flash of in your field of view."

"I'm on it." He positioned himself by the window and looked through. "Uh, Lieutenant, for some reason I can't see anything. I think my HUD may be malfunctioning."

He couldn't see, because as any good soldier knows, glass pane effectively blinds any thermal imaging device. I would of let him have it right there, but he was just a civilian, and this was definitely not the time. Instead, I pulled my sidearm and shot out the glass in front of his face.

He jumped back and fell on his ass. He looked up to me in complete surprise. Before he could fly off the handle, I used my bolter to point his attention back towards the window, "Try now."

Without saying a word he stepped back and peered out, "Okay smartass, where should I look first."

"Do you see the two bodies in the front lawn?"

"Yeah…"

"Look at how they fell and try to imagine how a bullet would have had to of hit them to make them land that way."

He looked very hard for a moment before responding, "I think we have two shooters; one southwest, one southeast." His head jerked suddenly to the left, "Flash of light! I saw it!"

"GET DOWN!" Shrock didn't hesitate, he hit the floor just milliseconds before the bullet that would have surely taken his head off; whizzed through the window and smashed into the wall behind us, followed shortly thereafter by the telltale crack of our sniper's bolter. He lay very still for a moment before looking over to me, "You son of a bitch! You almost got me killed!"

"But yet there you are, still bitching." He was about to scream at me some more but I didn't give him the chance, "Zip it Shrock. Rewind your log and play it back just before you saw that flash. Then slow it down and tell me exactly where the shot originated from." While he did this I loaded a cartridge of high explosive shells into the Rifle-Cannon.

"I'll do you one better." As I looked down the scope of the massive gun, a freeze-framed pic of what Shrock had seen appeared on my HUD, "You have it?"

I looked at the image for a few seconds before closing it out, "Got it." I shot out the window in front of the Rifle- Cannon just as I had Shrock's. I then quickly looked down the Rifle-Cannon's scope and aimed for the window of the building he'd just shown me. It was on the eighth floor of a twelve story building about two and a half clicks out.

I magnified the image and wasn't surprised to see nothing there. He'd already moved. I quickly scanned the other windows on that floor until I found one that was broken out just as mine was. I located my target just in time to see his muzzle flash from the darkness within.

I reacted instantly. I hit the ground and waited the couple of milliseconds necessary for the bullet to pass harmlessly through my head's previous position. In one swift motion; I stood back up, pulled the rifle-cannon to my shoulder, locked in, and pulled the trigger. The subsequent explosion and over-pressure caused by the twenty-five millimeter shell; shattered every window in the room and slammed me so hard in the shoulder it caused my HUD to flicker and every bone in my body to reverberate.

The round made impact almost exactly where I'd intended it to. A huge swath of fire erupted from my targeted window as well as those to either side of it, followed shortly thereafter by the sound of the explosive shell's detonation. I observed the window for a while and grinned when I saw a huge form, completely engulfed in flame, staggering towards us. The stricken creature had just made it to the opening when the effort finally became too much for it. The blazing hulk fell limply over the sill and lay there motionless; its ruined body hung there lifeless, halfway from falling to the ground.

Though I couldn't see the runes of Chaos through the conflagration; his staggering size, along with the shape of his armor, confirmed to me beyond any doubt what he was. Vividly recalling my experiences on Subjuga Two, I decided to play it safe. I grabbed the weapon's charging handle, ejected the spent cartridge, and slammed it forward again to chamber another. I then lined up the worthless bastard and sent another round directly into his back, completely annihilating his remains in a huge cloud of crimson colored mist and yellow fire.

Satisfied this one would definitely NOT, be getting back up on me, I looked over to Shrock, "Congratulations Inquisitor; you've just helped rid the Imperium of a Chaos Marine."

"The next time you plan to use me as bait, I'd kindly ask that you'd at least have the common decency to let me know."

"Okay Inquisitor, I plan on using you as bait again… just as soon as we get the hell out of here. And hurry it up, we haven't much time." I grabbed the gun from its tripod, and carried it out of the room.

"Why do we have to move?" Shrock asked as he caught up from behind carrying the tripod and the case containing my ammunition, "Why didn't you just shoot him from…" The explosion that ripped off from the room we were in very effectively answered the question for me.

"That's why." I said without looking back. I entered the room in which my second fire position was located and waited for him to set up the gun's support in front of another window. Once he had it ready I remounted the gun.

I looked at Shrock in a very serious manner, "Inquisitor, if you continue to question my every decision, I find it highly unlikely you'll live long enough to see tomorrow." I made a careful adjustment to the weapon's scope before pressing on, "So let's just say for the sake of your continued existence; you stop asking dumb questions, and just do what I say, when I say." I looked up from my work to stare him in the eye, "Do you read me?"

I guess his two very recent, _very_ near death experiences; had finally beaten him into a state of reasonableness. Because all he could think to say to me at that moment was, "Yes Lieutenant."

"All right then. Take my baby and smash out the windows; start with the one in front of this gun." I pulled the SK-43 from the bracket on my back and handed it to him.

He took the rifle from me and used its stock to smash out all four windows overlooking the front lawn. Once he'd completed his task he looked back to me, "Now what?"

I pointed the Rifle-Cannon to the southwest in a way that had it aimed at a group of buildings that were roughly the same distance from us as the last sniper's position. I activated my night vision function and watched the buildings where I thought my target might be. "Now take that rifle and start firing at those buildings to the southwest about two clicks out."

"Okay." He knelt down, placed my rifle's barrel on the window sill, and started popping off shots in the direction I'd indicated.

I watched very carefully for a couple of moments until I saw some movement come from the roof of one of the buildings. I instantly brought my beast to bear and magnified the image.

There he was! But what's that in his hands? Holy shit! He was now placing it atop his shoulder and taking careful aim… at us!

Seeing this, I aimed low and quickly pulled the trigger dead-center on the Marine's abdomen. I again felt its bone-jarring recoil and watched as fire erupted a full meter from the end of the barrel. I carefully observed the twenty-five millimeter projectile follow a perfect flight-path towards my intended victim, hoping against hope it would kill him before he could do the same to us.

No luck.

Fire erupted from the back of his launcher and a deadly streak of light headed straight for us. My HE round made contact and completely obliterated him, but not before he'd succeeded in sending us his own very special gift of death in a rocket-shaped package.

Shrock saw it too. He'd stood back up by now, but was completely immobilized; he was totally transfixed by the terrifying sight of our imminent demise.

FRAG THIS!

I reacted on instinct alone. I violently ripped the Rifle-Cannon from its support and headed full-speed for Shrock. I could see the rocket through the window, screaming steadily through the air on its one-way mission of death.

I lowered my shoulder at the very last instant and smashed into Shrock's side with such force I cracked two of the plates protecting his abdomen. He doubled over awkwardly, bending sideways almost fully in half over the top of my shoulder. I had to snatch hold of his legs with my free arm to prevent him from flipping the rest of the way over.

My armor worked hard to carry the dead-weight of both the weapon and Shrock, but my legs worked harder. Fueled by nothing more than adrenaline and a warrior's will to survive, my legs pumped with brutal force; quickly accelerating us to a very dangerous velocity headed straight for the wall. At the very last second I lowered my shoulder and smashed my way through using Shrock's armored body as a very effective battering ram.

The force of the blast caused me to trip, fall, and send both Inquisitor and weapon flying across the room. I landed hard on my face and slid the entire length of the floor until my head finally stopped the rest of me by crashing into a wall.

I awoke with a splitting headache. I don't know how long I was out, but it couldn't have been long; for when I rolled over Shrock was standing over me with his hand held out.

I let him help me to my feet. My head was still spinning from the impact and I almost fell over. He caught hold and held me steady just long enough to regain my balance, "Thank you Inquisitor."

He regarded me then with a look of complete humility in his eyes and said very earnestly, "No Lieutenant; thank _you."_

 **Chapter 25**

I walked over to where the Rifle- Cannon had landed and picked it up. I turned it over a couple times in my hands, carefully examining it for any damage that might impede its operation. Besides a couple of scrapes in the finish, I could see nothing that would prevent it from functioning properly.

To make fully sure it was still operational, I placed its stock in the pit of my stomach to hold in place while I pulled the charging handle back to eject the expended shell. As soon as it cleared, I slammed it forward again to chamber one of the two that remained; the rest of its ammunition had undoubtedly been destroyed in the explosion.

I looked back to Shrock, "I think we're only gonna get two more bodies out of this bad-boy." I chuckled lightly, "Just enough to break my previous record."

"How are you going to fire it without the tripod?"

I looked to him and smiled, "I have another one; it's called Damon Shrock." We both got a good laugh out of that. We laughed very heartily at my stupid joke for a good long while before the telltale boom of a Thunder Hawk traveling at supersonic speed brought us back to the task at hand.

"Come on Inquisitor; it's time to go topside."

He looked out the window in the direction of the buildings in which I'd killed the Marines. Seeing this reluctance, I walked up beside him and placed my hand on his shoulder, "They're dead Shrock. They're all dead." I guess by now I'd earned his trust, because it didn't take any further encouragement to get him to accompany me.

"Sir, that was amazing! I mean the way you just blew those bastards away like that… WOW!" The half-assed sniper I'd shot with earlier was now drooling over me.

"Get back to your post." I ordered sharply. He reluctantly ran back to his nest and settled back into a firing position. Shrock tapped me on the shoulder and pointed my attention towards the sky.

I looked up to see dozens of flaming streaks of fire burning their way through the Ophidian atmosphere. I carefully observed their decent until I was pretty sure they would land where Tacker said they would. "Colonel this is Frost."

"Go ahead Lieutenant."

"Order all perimeter forces to the north lawn. Tell them they can use the tanks as cover, but under no circumstance are they to try and mount them in any way."

I heard him chuckle lightly, "I highly doubt any of them are dumb enough to try, but I'll inform them none the less."

"Raker this is Frost." "Send it."

"Reinforcements in route; they'll be using you guys as cover. Try not to run anyone over."

"Got it Chief; as long as they stay _off_ our tanks, they're all good. Tell em' we'll blow our horns if and when we plan to move."

"You get that Colonel?"

"Got it Lieutenant; relaying info now."

I looked over to the sniper positions on our side of the roof and hollered out, "I want you guys to double time it on over to the north-side, they need your help. Inquisitor Shrock and I will cover this side." They all obeyed and moved out without question.

I looked up just in time to see our fly-boys scream over on a direct intercept course with the inbound enemy. I waited patiently until I saw the first of them blown clean from the sky in a great ball of expanding fire. "Come on Inquisitor; it's time to do what we came here for." We both watched for a second or two longer as our local Thunder Hawk fighter wing unleashed its full unpitying wrath upon the defenseless drop-ships.

As multiple violent detonations ripped off from above, Shrock looked to me and nodded; with that, we both dropped down and low crawled towards our fire position. Once we had a satisfactory view overlooking the south lawn I nudged him on the shoulder, "My bet is they'll wait for the Hawks to fire off all their missiles."

"Then what?"

"We'll have to see. The only thing I'm still unsure of is how they're going to show," I continued on absentmindedly, "Could be some land- cruisers, a salamander troop transport, or they might even come in on foot; at this point, your guess is as good as mine."

"How about a pair of low flying Night-Hawks?"

"Yeah, I suppose that would work. I mean…" He jabbed me hard in the shoulder.

"Look!" He hissed.

I looked up to see a pair of Night Hawks flying silently towards us on a very low approach vector from the southeast. They were still about two clicks out, "That's them." I stated calmly, "I think I might be able to drop one of em' with the Rifle-Cannon, but I want to wait until they fully commit to their attack."

BOOM! It was one of Sergeant Raker's tanks firing off its main gun. I then heard the fading screams of the Thunder Hawks returning to base to reload.

My vox sprang to life, "Frost, this is Tacker."

"Go ahead." I was still keeping an eye on the Night Hawk's stealthy approach.

"We are currently engaging the enemy on the northern line."

"How many touched down?"

"Twenty-six."

"Good; keep me apprised. I'm now preparing to engage primary objective."

"They're here?! The Marines are here?!" The surprise in his voice was palpable.

"Yes Colonel. That _is_ why I came here in the first place. You just continue to stay calm and worry about your end so I can take care of mine. You read me?"

"Yes Sir." With that he cut the link.

I looked back to the approaching enemy and watched as they continued to close on us, "Shit!"

"What?!" Shrock asked.

"They're gonna try for the roof. Get on your knee, NOW!" I silently cursed myself for not expecting something like this; if they made the roof we were all toast. FRAG! I placed the barrel on Shrock's shoulder and took aim at the closer one. I had to force them down; if they somehow made the roof, my entire ambush would be ruined and they'd surely kill us all.

I targeted the engine under its left wing and fired. "BOOM!"

The rifle belched fire a whole meter from its tip again. Shrock grabbed hold of the smoking barrel to hold in place while I chambered another. I watched the massive round tear through the air towards the craft. At the very last possible instant it pulled up hard, causing the round to fly harmlessly underneath.

I'd expected such a maneuver and quickly pulled the trigger again, already aimed high and slightly to the left. Unable to reverse its upward momentum it had to immediately bank right to avoid hitting its wing on the aircraft to the left of it.

My lead proved accurate and the bullet stuck home; exploding its left engine completely out from under the wing it was attached to.

Its other engine instantly increased power to compensate, but the complete and total loss of thrust from one side, caused it to dramatically over-correct. It threw itself into a violent spin that brought it smashing into the very object it had tried to avoid hitting in the first place. The brutal mid-air collision snapped the other craft's wing off and it too started to spin and fall from the sky.

I threw the now useless Rifle-Cannon to the ground. Shrock turned to regard me with a wide grin, "Lieutenant, I'm beginning to think we may actually make it through this thing alive."

"This is just the beginning Inquisitor. I doubt either of them was high enough for the fall to kill anyone. We'll be damn lucky if they were even hurt in the crash." As if only to verify the accuracy of my statement, Marines started pulling themselves from both wrecked birds; only a couple looked even remotely affected by their sudden crash landing.

While they were busy regrouping, I decided to give them a not so friendly push towards the front door, "Raker, this is Frost."

"What's up Chief?"

"Send two of your tracks around the east side of the building. There's about twenty or so Marines by two downed Night Hawks on the southeast corner of the lawn. I'd like you to go ahead and kill them for me."

"You tag em', we bag em'!" He said with much enthusiasm.

"What the hell does that mean?" Shrock asked.

"He wants us to paint them with a targeting laser so he can more effectively blow them all to hell." I heard the tank's massive tracks tearing up sod from below us on the east side of the palace. The Marines must have heard it too, because all but three of them started quickly for the main entrance. The other three fearlessly charged straight for the tanks I'd called in to kill them.

I turned to Shrock, "Take this," I handed him a small remote with just a toggle switch and a bright red button on it, "When they get close, flip the switch."

"Then what?"

"If any of them try for a window on the second or third floor; press the button. I'm gonna take care of them." I pointed to the three who were now moving with phenomenal speed towards our tanks, "And Shrock,"

"Yes?"

"Keep your god-damned head down."

He nodded, turned, and crept towards the front of the palace to get a better view of the main entrance; I pulled my SK-43 from the bracket on my back and activated the scope's infrared targeting laser. I then headed for the sniper's nest on the southeast corner of the roof.

Once I made position, I peeked over to see where they were. They were still almost fifteen hundred meters out, but were closing with incredible speed. I'd have to slow them down to give the tanks a better chance.

"Hightower, this is Frost." "Sir?"

"Our guests have arrived; unroll the welcome mat."

"Yes Sir!"

A few seconds later, our glorious Imperial Anthem started blasting at full volume over dozens of loud speakers I'd hidden all over the exterior of the palace. It was so loud I had to trigger my helmet to filter some of it to protect my eardrums from bursting.

This completely unexpected act of Imperial patriotism produced the desired effect. Both groups of Marines pulled up short, still about a click out each; all totally confused as to exactly what was going on. While my three were busy looking around at each other I stood up.

"HELLO!" I called down to them, my voice amplified by my suit's loudspeaker, "My name is Lieutenant Frost and I'd like to welcome you to Imperial Ophidia." As they looked up to the sound of my voice, I reached down and flipped a switch on the floodlight in front of me. I grabbed hold of either side and adjusted it to bathe all three of them in a huge circle of bright white light.

As they shielded their eyes from the light's intensity, I casually moved my rifle's scope to paint the one in the center with its infrared beam; below, I heard the faint sound of turrets traversing to lock onto them.

I continued, "I'm very sorry you can't stay, but we simply don't need any worthless pieces of shit around here." They'd heard all they were going to, all three of them raised their weapons up to kill me then.

Only one got a shot off; the other two disappeared in a blaze of fire as the tanks picked that very moment to blow their sorry asses straight back to hell. The floodlight in front of me exploded in gunfire, forcing me to hit the deck. I had to wait for a couple of moments for his automatic gunfire to cease before I could safely stand back up.

He was moving again; straight for the tanks. I painted him with my laser, but he was now well aware of the near fatal mistake he'd just made. He suddenly juked to the right, narrowly avoiding two more rounds fired from their main cannons. Their heavy machine bolters opened up and he responded with a jet assisted jump. They tried to follow, but he quickly cleared their maximum elevation and flew free.

He sailed through the air and descended unerringly to land atop one of the tanks below. He snatched the man manning the machine gun by his neck and ripped him from the turret. With superhuman force he threw the helpless soldier into the gunner atop the other who was still trying to bring his heavy bolter to bear. The vicious collision killed both men instantly.

He didn't stop. Without slowing, he stepped onto the Leman Russ's main turret and ripped the heavy main hatch completely from its hull. Immediately, a hand bolter appeared from within and opened fire.

As every bullet the tanker fired bounced uselessly from his armor, he pulled a grenade from his waist, popped the pin, and dropped it into the hole with the crew. Before anyone could throw it back, he slammed the hatch back in place and held it there tightly. While waiting for the men inside to die, he looked up to me and nodded his head in triumph.

The hatched popped up with fire shooting out from underneath and all around it. He forced it back down to contain the blast and stood back up. He then turned away and very purposefully hopped the short distance between him and the other tank.

Before he could even attempt to repeat the process; I slammed him right in the side of his helmet with a fifty caliber round. His head jerked abruptly to the side and he staggered a couple of steps towards the edge but caught himself just short of falling. He was starting to turn back towards me when I struck him upside the head with another. This time he didn't catch himself, he fell over the far side of the tank and out of sight.

I was preparing to hop down there and make sure the job was finished when the tank's exhaust started belching thick clouds of black smoke with the revving of its engines. The beast jerked backwards and rolled that way until I could clearly see the marine lying in the grass, semi-conscious, and starting to stir. His helmet was cracked all the way down the center; one more round would surely do the trick.

I was just lining up the shot when the tank suddenly reversed its direction, pivoted to the left, and started forward again. I knew they had the throttle wide open when I saw the tracks break free of the earth and spin much faster than it was actually moving. The marine had just sat up when the treads caught hold of his leg and dragged him under all sixty tons of it. He screamed like any mortal would as the juggernaut ruthlessly ripped him to pieces under its immense bone-crushing weight.

The hatch popped open and out came Sergeant Raker with a half-smoked narc-tube hanging from the side of his mouth. He did a quick check to make sure the bastard was dead, then looked up to me. I smiled widely as he gave me one of his half-assed salutes before dropping back into his track. Fragging tankers….

 **Chapter 26**

I series of sequential explosions forced me to turn around. Shrock had just blown the window charges. I could only wonder how many he'd gotten… I could only hope he'd gotten any at all.

I'd just started forward to check when out of nowhere a massive form, fell like a rock from the sky and flattened me to the ground. The force of the impact was so violent I whited out for a second and all the air was forced from me.

My vision cleared just in time for me to dodge a sizzling hot power-fist thrown down with the sole intention of obliterating my skull. I quickly realized I was pinned under a marine wearing a type of armor I'd never seen; it was much larger and far more powerful than anything I'd yet faced.

He ripped his fist from the hole it had created in the ground beside me and grabbed me around the neck with his free hand to hold in place for his next blow. I tried desperately to move, to throw him, to do anything at all; but even with all its technological advancements my power-suit was still fully outclassed by this colossus sporting this ungodly suit of mechanized death.

He reared back in preparation to destroy me and had just started to bring down that glowing bludgeon of doom when a streak of black came out of nowhere and slammed into the side of him… and then he was gone.

I quickly jumped to my feet and looked over to see what the hell just happened. I quickly realized the Inquisitor had just thrown caution to the wind, tackled the monster, and saved my life in the process. They tumbled over each other half a dozen times and skidded to a halt some five meters away with Shrock ending up on top.

He came up with his ignited power-sword in both hands, preparing to stab the behemoth through his chest with it. Before he could the giant's glowing hand shot up and slammed him in the chest; the force of the blow launched the whole of Shrock's armored body through the air as if he weighed nothing at all.

Mid-flight, Shrock somehow, and much to my amazement, flipped himself over, and came down softly to complete a flawless landing on both feet. Much impressed, I looked over to see a giant hand shaped indentation in his chest plate.

"You okay?" I hollered. "I'm fine; you?"

"Alive… Thanks." I looked over to our tormenter who was just now getting up. As he brought himself to the full of his terrifying height, my jaw dropped open.

By this point I'd come to understand that Marines are big, even ridiculously so, but this guy took that understanding and blew it clean out of the water. He was every bit two and a half meters tall. In all actuality he was probably closer to three, and with that absurd suit of power armor on, I'd honestly estimate his weight at somewhere between four or five hundred kilos; and that's probably on the low side.

I looked over to Shrock again, "I killed the last five; this one's yours."

His face screwed up, "Don't even try it buddy; you only killed two by my count, the tanks took out the other three. I think I got at least two with the window charges; so the way I see it, that makes us even."

As the marine started for me I turned away to fully regard Shrock,

"Frag off Inquisitor! I'm the one who set the god-damned charges in the first place; all you did was press a fraggin' button!" Now turned so the marine couldn't see, I set a hand upon my sword. "And it was me who targeted the two the tanks got with a laser from _my_ scope." My sword started to vibrate as I quietly unclicked its holster, "And if _I_ wouldn't have shot the last one, when _I_ did, he would have destroyed both crews." The marine was almost upon me, "So the new count, is me, seven; you, zero."

The marine hovering over me started to laugh. I look up to him, "Could you give me a minute; I'm kind of in the middle of something?" I looked back to Shrock, "So this one's yours; you kill him."

Shrock looked at me thoughtfully before replying, "You make a strong case Lieutenant, but you seem to be forgetting one very important thing."

"Oh yeah, what's that?"

"I'm the Inquisitor; and _you,_ work for _me!_ So quit fragging around and kill him already… That's an order!"

I looked up to the giant that was now towering over me, "Can you believe the nerve of this guy?" He held out his massive arms in a way that indicated he could feel my pain. I continued, "But as much as I hate to say it; he does have a very valid point, and as you probably already know…" In one very swift motion, I ripped the sword from its holster and stabbed the unlit hilt into his stomach. He looked down at me in a very confused manner as the metallic skull just clinked loudly against the armor protecting his abdomen. I held it there firmly, "Orders must be followed." I clicked the mandible open.

A white flame erupted from the top of the hilt and tore its way through the whole of his massively armored body.

He gasped and I heard his blood boil as I ruthlessly forced the blade up through bone, flesh, and armor alike. The sword was vibrating violently and a torrent of blood burst out from him when I finally pulled it free. The beast dropped to both knees as he desperately tried to hold everything that belonged inside of him, inside of him. Coming to accept the fact I'd just killed him, he gave up this hopelessly futile task and lunged for me with both hands.

I stepped back, easily avoiding his pitiful attempt and prepared to deliver the final blow. With much determination he crawled towards me on hand and knee, still trying vainly to somehow grasp hold in any way at all.

I was just getting ready to send him straight back to hell when a flash of black came out of nowhere to chop halfway through the back of his neck, severing his spine with a loud crack. The beast shuddered and fell dead on his face.

Shrock placed his foot to the back of the dead marine's head and started to try and pull his sword free, "I killed this one if you're still counting."

I deactivated my power sword, "No way you prick; he was dead well before you showed up."

"Dead things don't move," he replied as he finally ripped his blade free, "and he was very clearly, still moving when I got here."

"Minor technicality Shrock; he would have died anyways. His guts are all over the ground for Emperor's sake. I killed him and that's all there is to it."

"Aren't you forgetting the fact that you'd be dead right now had it not been for me; the only reason you're still alive is because I; and I alone, stopped him from squashing your incredibly thick skull like a grape."

The undeniable truth behind his statement left me red in the face,

"That was totally unnecessary. I had the situation well under control. I could have easily killed him without any help from the likes of you." It was a lie and we both knew it; he would have definitely killed me had it not been for Shrock.

He looked at me long and hard and replied very simply, "Now we both know that's not true."

The bastard had me, "Okay, okay, you win. We'll call it fifty-fifty. We can both claim equal credit for killing him."

"If it helps you sleep better tonight I'm willing to concede the fact that you're at most, twenty-five percent responsible for his death."

I was about to argue the validity of my fifty percent claim further, but my vox sprang to life, "Frost, this is Hightower." I could hear a symphony of gunfire ripping off in the background.

"Go ahead."

"Primary ambush has only been partially successful."

"What do you mean partially?" I didn't like the sound of that at all. "Well I have seven dead marines down here; two more badly injured."

"So what's the problem?"

"There's only me and about ten others left alive; and we're hopelessly deadlocked against the two who are injured."

"Shit!" I'd started with more than two hundred.

Hightower continued with more bad news, "That's not all Sir; four or five of them somehow made it out of the kill-box and are currently having free run of the palace."

 _God fragging dammit!_ "Hold on Mr. Hightower, help is on the way."

"Please hurry; it's just me and eight others now."

I looked down to Inquisitor Shrock who was carefully examining a strange symbol on the shoulder of our dead marine, "Come on Shrock they need our help inside."

"Lieutenant, I think I have some bad news of my own."

What could possibly be worse that what was happening right now?

"What Inquisitor?"

"This symbol denotes a sect of Space Marines known as the Black Legion."

"Who cares? A marine is a marine; they're all very big and even harder to kill."

"The ones you fought on Subjuga Two were World Eaters." I could tell he was trying very hard to impress upon me some very important piece of information; I honestly had no clue as to what he was trying to get at.

"So?"

"The last Marine you fought on Subjuga Two said he could not feel your presence; that would imply he had at least some limited form of psychic ability."

"Okay, I can agree with that; but what's so damned important about this that we have to discuss it now?"

"World Eaters absolutely despise psykers; they hate them more than anything else. There's absolutely no way the World Eaters I know would ever even consider letting someone with psychic ability into their ranks. That simple fact, coupled with the significant level of restraint he showed during your fight, is what originally convinced me beyond any doubt that you were a traitor."

"Significant level of restraint?!" I asked incredulously, "The bastard tore my fragging arm off for Emperor's sake!"

"World Eaters are berserkers; always have been. No tactics, just blood for the Blood God. Now I distinctly recall two or three moments during that fight where between his expected fits of rage, he somehow calmed himself. So much so; that he was actually able to speak to you as a warrior worthy of his respect."

"You seem to forget that I was incapacitated two of those three times; which probably made him feel very comfortable in his ability to kill me at his own leisure."

"The World Eaters of today do not operate like that; they just attack and attack until one of you is dead; they feel their own blood is just as good as yours if it's spilled in the Blood God's name. This belief makes them incredibly dangerous, but relatively easy to defeat upon the field of battle."

"The marine you encountered on Subjuga Two, appears to be a throwback to those World Eaters who lived long ago during the time of our Emperor; who were still incredibly aggressive but also paid great respect to those who fought with honor and courage."

"What are you trying to say to me Inquisitor?"

"What I'm trying to say, Lieutenant; is that the World Eaters of today are a minor nuisance at best, they're nothing more than rage-filled monsters that kill everything in sight just for the sake of killing it. More often than not, they kill each other before they even look towards the Imperium of Man. They've been driven to complete insanity by the hands of their Primarch, Angron and his neurological implants known as the Butcher's Nails, which he had forcibly implanted into each and every one of them."

"Left alone I'm sure they would have gone extinct of their own accord; but almost six hundred years ago, Angron the Red Angel, was banished back to the immaterium for a thousand years by Captain Aurellian of the Grey Knights."

He continued on in a way that made it seem as if he were in the midst of putting the pieces of a great puzzle together, "With Angron out of the picture, it's quite possible that some new force has come to power among them; and whatever that force is, it seems to be pushing them back from the brink of extinction and towards their more glorious days of old." He pointed to the body I was at least twenty five percent responsible for, "And this one here, wearing Terminator Armour of the Black Legion; says to me, that the man behind this legion's reaffirmation is none other than Abaddon the Despoiler himself."

I recognized the name but still failed to see why I should care about any of this, "I fail to see why I should care about any of this."

"You should care, because in their prime, the World Eaters were quite possibly the most efficient killers ever unleashed upon the field of battle. They were sent in only when it became necessary to make an example out of a planet dumb enough to stand before the Emperor of Man. When someone pissed the Emperor off enough for him to actually order the World Eaters into battle, they would show not with the intention of conquering a people but to enact their utter extermination."

"I think by mixing psykers, along with the relatively disciplined Marines of his own Black Legion, in with whatever remains of the World Eaters; Abaddon hopes to reestablish some sort of military bearing among them, temper their aggressiveness, and then use those baselines to go about rebuilding the ranks of the most dangerous fighting force the galaxy has ever known. I'm even willing to bet that he's gone so far as to put a stop to the Butcher's Nails implantation process. He may have even found a way to remove them."

My vox sprang back to life, "Where the frag are you guys?! We can't hold on much longer here!" It was Hightower; his voice beginning to grow desperate.

"That's all very nice Shrock, you can tell me the rest later; Hightower needs our help." With that I ran over and scooped up my SK-43. I then headed for the front of the building, I looked back to check on Shrock; he was busy trying to remove the shoulder pad from the dead marine. What the frag was he doing? "What the frag are you doing?!"

"Gathering evidence; what does it look like I'm doing?"

Emperor, help me… "He's dead Shrock; I'm pretty sure he'll still be there, _AFTER_ we save Hightower!" I swear sometimes that man's so smart he's stupid; thankfully he agreed, because he immediately quit what he was doing and joined me on the roof's ledge. "Really Inquisitor?" Before he could even attempt to justify his stupidity I hopped down.

 **Chapter 27**

I landed softly in the palace's front lawn; the suit had automatically fired its jets to slow my descent. I was beginning to really like this thing. Shrock plopped down beside me.

"What's the plan?" He asked as we headed for the doors.

"The plan; is to go in there and kill the rest of these bastards. Other than that, there is no plan." Surprisingly, he asked nothing further and just followed me very quietly through the threshold.

I walked through the doors and was greeted by eight dead guards and one marine at the security checkpoint; rapid gunfire was ripping off just meters ahead. I dropped the half spent mag from my rifle and slapped in a fresh one; giving me six shots to work with. As I stepped over the pile of bodies I noticed Shrock reach down and pry the massive hand bolter from the marine's dead hands. Seeing the abnormally large bolter in Shrock's normal sized hands almost made me laugh; for some reason it reminded me of a rebel child whose life I'd once spared after slapping the shit out of him for attempting to shoot me with his father's gun.

We passed the checkpoint and continued to creep along quietly until we arrived at the archway leading into the grand lobby. The rate of gunfire had lessened, but every shot was now incredibly loud; they were just around the corner. I chambered a slug and flipped my selector lever to shotgun, "Hightower, this is Frost." I whispered.

"If you don't get your ass down here; there won't be a Hightower!" He screamed.

"We're here, just behind the arch at the lobby's main entrance. Order your men to hold their fire; we're coming in."

I heard his voice call out, "Private Yorhine!"

Another long spray of automatic gunfire ripped off, "What?!" It was the young man I'd met earlier.

"Hold your fire over there."

"No way man! They're not dead yet!" I heard him slap a mag into his bolter and dump the whole thing just as fast as the weapon would let him, "Take that you son of a bitch!"

"Private, you stop firing at that marine hiding behind the column on the west side of this lobby right now!" Hightower yelled, cleverly informing me of one of my target's position. I heard the sound of another fresh mag being slapped into place.

A series of heavy caliber semiautomatic shots popped off from around the corner to the left of me. "See? I told you he's not dead!" Yorhine unloaded another mag.

"Neither is the one behind the column on the east of the room, but I'm done; this has gone on long enough." There was a momentary break in the shooting, "Hey you! Down there! On behalf of the people of Ophidia; I'm now ready to accept your surrender. Throw down your weapons and no harm will come to you." I again heard the sound of a magazine being loaded into a bolter, "Private Yorhine, if you fire even one more round; I will shoot you myself!"

No more fire. I looked to Shrock and whispered over our vox link, "I go left; you go right." He nodded his head.

Hightower's voice rang out again, "You marines fought well, but it's now time to accept your defeat. This is your last chance; throw down your weapons and you have my word that we will show mercy upon you."

Two heavy caliber bolters opened up then as I knew they would. Using the fire to hide the sound of my movements; I slipped through the archway and into a body-filled room of bloody carnage. The marine in front of me had his back turned, firing up towards the balcony; he was using the column in front of him as very effective hard cover to protect himself from my comrades above.

I stepped over three or four bodies, slowly creeping up from behind; thankfully he noticed not as he was totally preoccupied with holding that trigger- happy Private down.

Thankfully he was holding the trigger-happy Private down; if the kid decided to shoot now I'd probably be his next victim. He was turning around to reload when he, much surprised, found me standing there with my shotgun held just centimeters from his face.

"Don't you move a muscle." I stated coldly. He very carefully put his hands up and dropped his bolter to the ground. I then heard a single shot from a bolter fired off from behind and to the right of me, followed shortly thereafter by a large thud.

"That makes two!" Shrock's very excited voice called out.

I paid him no attention and continued to stare down the marine sitting before me, "Remove your helmet." He hesitated, so I jabbed him hard in the face with the barrel of my gun, "NOW!"

"Lieutenant Frost, is that you? Thank god you're here!" It was Yorhine calling down from the balcony above.

"Shut up Private; I'm busy." I regarded my captive again, "Remove your helmet or you won't have a head to remove it from." I took a step back.

He slowly brought his hands down to either side of his black and gold painted helmet. Shrock stepped up beside me and pointed his confiscated bolter down at his head as well.

The marine carefully unclicked several well-hidden latches from around the bottom of his cover before slowly pulling it off, "Now drop it to the ground." I was now looking straight into his dead black eyes. His face was pale, with scars covering almost every square inch of it; some faint, some long and nasty. He had a strong jaw line with hair that was buzzed short and completely white. From the look of his face I could tell this man was old, but the bulged-out, rippling muscles of his neck said to me that despite his age his body was still young and strong.

"Stand up." I ordered.

He stared at me hard for a tense moment before responding, "I can't."

His eyes drew my attention towards his legs; they were both riddled with bullet holes and bleeding profusely. They were gone, shot to hell, and completely destroyed; no amount of surgery in the Imperium would be able to fix them now. I looked him back in the eye and realized that even though he must be in immense pain, he displayed none.

"Sergeant Raker, this is Frost." I said into my vox.

"Send it."

"How are things on your end?"

"It was touch and go for a while, but about two minutes ago the Thunder Hawks showed back up and bombed them all to hell; there's not much left out here anymore."

Finally, some good news, "Very good Sergeant; how many dismounts do you have left?"

The vox went silent for a moment while he checked, "Almost thirty."

"Do you still need them?

"Nah, we're good. These guys got some balls though; they did one hell of a job out here."

"Go ahead and send them to the lobby; we need their help. Tell them to be sure and go _around_ the building; we're missing some marines and I don't want anyone to accidently run into them."

"Roger that."

I turned my attention back to my captive, "Inquisitor, would to be so kind as to render him unconscious." I didn't have to ask twice; Shrock immediately reached down and pistol-whipped our prisoner in the side of his unprotected head. The marine's eyes rolled back and his head lulled forward; once satisfied he was truly out, I put my rifle back into its bracket and drew my power sword.

My blessed sword wanted desperately to taste this man's blood and I had to hold on tightly as I ignited it. I then carefully reached down and went about severing every single cable that provided power to his arms, effectively rendering him completely immobilized.

"Tacker, this is Frost."

"Go ahead…" I heard a very loud grinding sound over the link, "Lieutenant, I have company down here." More grinding.

"How many?"

"I saw five, maybe six, before they shot out the camera."

Finally, some good news; I wouldn't have to search this palace room by room after all, "Hold on Colonel, help is on the way."

"Please hurry Lieutenant." With that he cut the link.

Shrock looked at me full of consternation, "Lieutenant; that door may not hold out."

I agreed with his assessment; that door wouldn't hold up against those chain axes for very long at all; I also knew that it would take more than just the four of us to handle that many marines, "We'd better wait Inquisitor; our backup will be here in just a minute or two anyway." I hoped I wouldn't regret this decision.

It took almost two whole minutes before our reinforcements arrived. When they did I understood what had taken them so long; six of them had minor wounds and had slowed the rest down.

I pointed to those who were wounded, "I want you troops to stay here and guard this one. Do any of you have any medical training?"

"I do Sir."

"Good," I pointed to the marine's destroyed legs, "I want you to get this bleeding under control. Do not let him die; we may need to question him later. Do you understand?"

"Sir, yes Sir."

"Alright then; the rest you on me. Mr. Hightower; take up the rear."

"Yes Sir." "

Private Yorhine."

"Sir?"

"You know this place better than I do; so you're taking point. Get us down to C&C as fast as you possibly can."

"Roger that." He turned and headed straight for a door on the west wall of the room with Shrock, Hightower, myself, and about twenty-five others following close behind.

As we maneuvered through the palace it suddenly struck me that for once I was headed into a fight with every possible tactical advantage I could have. For some reason I wasn't as comforted as I should have been.

We hit the elevators and before Yorhine could even attempt to board one I redirected him towards the staircase; they'd already been this way and it was quite possible they'd rigged the elevators to blow as soon as someone stepped onto one of them… that's what I'd have done.

We all quickly descended the stairs until we reached sublevel five with the words Command and Control written over the door. Apparently the marines had come this way too because the door was hanging partially ajar with both its lock and handle destroyed.

Private Yorhine crept forward with me on his heels and used the barrel of his rifle to slowly ease the door the rest of the way open. I could now hear the chain axes grinding away with my own ears. I tapped Yorhine on the shoulder and motioned for him to fall back so Shrock and I could take point.

The only thing on Sublevel Five was the C&C Bunker. However, the route to it was extremely convoluted with many false halls, dead ends, and security checkpoints along the way. This, I'm told, had all been done very purposely to add an additional level of security. As far as I'm concerned it worked, because even though I'd now been down here three times, I was still totally uncertain as to exactly how I was supposed to get to that god-damned bunker.

Private Yorhine saw my hesitation and stepped up, "It's okay Sir; it took me at least three months before I figured this place out." A couple of soldiers behind him grunted their agreement. He continued, "Let me take point, but just so you know; there are actually two ways to get there; the quick way and the long way." He paused then to wait for my decision.

Yes, I remembered now, there were two approaches to the bunker and they were set in such a way that if I timed my attacks just right I'd be able to draw them into another ambush with little effort. It only took me a second to formulate a plan of attack, "We're going both ways. Who else here knows this floor as well as Private Yorhine?"

"I do Sir." One of the men replied without hesitation.

"Good, I want you to lead Mr. Hightower and the rest of these men around the long way."

"Yes Sir!"

I looked to Hightower, "When you get there I want you to attack immediately." I looked to the rest of the men, "No one be a hero; that's an order. All I want out of you men is a whole lot of fire aimed in their direction; use cover, aim for their legs, and whatever you do, don't let them get close to you. You read me?"

There was no verbal response just a bunch of curt nods from men with clenched jaws and angry faces full of fierce determination, "Good, now let's finish this once and for all. Move out!" The men, lead by Hightower and his guide, instantly jumped into action.

I turned to Private Yorhine, "Take us the short way."

As he led us down the first hall he turned over his shoulder, "Sir?"

"What Private?"

"You know after they attack there is a very high probability that we'll be coming face to face with five very angry Marines." He took a quick left followed by a quick right.

"And?" I asked somewhat absentmindedly.

He stopped for a second and turned around to fully regard me, "Well no disrespect intended, but Sir there is no way in hell the three of us can handle five Marines."

Shrock spoke up from behind me, "I agree with the young Private's assessment."

"Shut up the both of you!" I snapped, "We came here to kill them all and that's exactly what we're going to do. Now shut your god-damned mouths and just do what I tell you to!" I snatched Private Yorhine's rifle from his hands, threw it to the ground, and handed him mine, "Take this." I then turned him around and pushed him down the hall in the direction he was traveling before he'd decided this course of action probably wasn't a good idea.

I looked over to Shrock as Yorhine reluctantly continued to lead us towards our imminent demise, "And you should know better."

The grinding sound that had been present and growing ever since we'd gotten to the basement abruptly came to a stop. From the sound of it, our quarry was just at the end of this hall and around the next corner.

Yorhine came to a stop and gave me a series of hand signals confirming my supposition. I stepped up, grabbed him by the shoulder, and forced him into an office door off to the right of the hall to use as cover. I roughly pushed him down into a prone firing position and whispered to him in a low voice, "Private, I want you to stay right here and shoot the first Marine that rounds that corner."

He nodded sternly and pulled my rifle tight to his shoulder. I motioned for Shrock to hide in the same room but to stay out of sight. As he stepped over Yorhine I leaned in close, "Whatever he shoots is going to charge right in here after him; I want you to stay hidden and when…"

He cut me off, "Yes, yes, I get it; I'm not a complete moron."

I smiled, "Well you certainly had me fooled." I just barely caught the obscene gesture he shot me as I turned and proceeded to an office just a little further up and across the hall in the direction they'd be coming from.

I heard a series of deafening thumps come from the direction of the bunker. "Lieutenant, this is Tacker; what's taking you so long?! They're kicking what's left of the door in now!" His voice was full of desperation.

I was just about to reply when a massive onslaught of bolter fire answered his question for me. I grasped hold of my sword, placed my thumb upon its closed mandible, and prepared to ignite it. I was just starting to get antsy when I heard another loud thumb followed shortly thereafter by what sounded a lot like a heavy metal door hitting the ground… SHIT!

My worst fear was confirmed when the gunfire ceased, "Lieutenant Frost, they have entered the bunker! I repeat; they have entered the bunker!" It was Hightower's voice screaming over my vox, "Should we pursue?"

FRAG! The Colonel was already dead, pursuit would be stupid. If we did, we'd lose the only advantage we still had and they'd just end up killing us all in what it is they do best; close quarters combat. "Absolutely not Mr. Hightower; stick to the plan, they have to come out sooner or later, and when they do we'll get their sorry asses."

 **Chapter 28**

I silently cursed myself for not getting down here a little quicker; the Colonel had died because of my decisions. His death was my…

This line of thought was stopped dead in its tracks as another barrage of automatic fire erupted from Hightower and his men. The fighting was fierce and as I waited, hidden just out of sight inside this darkened doorway, I mentally pictured the tactical retreat the Marines were now in the middle of. Two or three of them had posted up in the bunker door and opened fire at Hightower so the other two could make it around the corner at the end of this hall. They would then clear this hall so they could subsequently use it as cover to hold down Hightower, thus allowing their once trapped buddies to escape along with them. Little did they know…

BOOM! It was the sweet sound of my SK sending lead downrange.

BOOM! I heard the rapid patter of a pair of sprinting boots headed in my direction.

BOOM! I remained undetected as the Marine that belonged to those boots flashed right by my hide headed straight for Private Yorhine.

BOOM! I again heard the rapid patter of sprinting boots.

I silently counted off to myself, "And… three, two, one…" I ignited my sword, turned to the left, and stabbed the stupid bastard right through the seam on the side of his chest plate, impaling both of his hearts as I did. I deactivated the sword and watched him continue on down the hall another couple of meters before his legs gave out and his lifeless body fell dead to the floor. I looked down the hall to see the one I'd let pass was now almost to Yorhine who hadn't yet fallen back like he was supposed to. Instead he was again taking aim, and he was taking aim… AT ME?!

BOOM! Another round fired by the overzealous private zipped right by my head. That moron almost killed me! I was just about to go and help that Marine dismember his stupid ass when I heard something from behind.

I turned around just in time to see an off-balance Marine in the process of swinging a giant screaming chain axe in the direction of my head. I reacted on instinct alone; I ducked into it, stepped forward, and ignited my power sword.

It worked… kind of. Thankfully the axe cleared my head, but the mass of his charging body bore right into my ducking my shoulder before I had a chance to do anything with the sword. In fact, the force of the blow caused me to drop my most prized possession.

As he doubled over, I instinctively tried to turn our unfortunate collision into some kind of impromptu tackle. I briefly got his feet to leave the ground, but apparently that move was just a little more than I could expect from this suit of armor; my legs gave out and I ended up collapsing under the immensity of both his momentum and weight.

I landed face down with him sprawled awkwardly over top of me. I was trying desperately to squirm free while he tried just as desperately to retrieve his chain-axe which was now firmly planted in the wall to the right of us.

Thankfully, he was more interested in the axe, because his efforts to pull it free, allowed me to get out from underneath him. I got to my feet just as he stood up and wrapped both hands firmly around the axe's handle in preparation to tear it out of the wall.

I searched the ground for my power-sword and quickly realized it was completely out of reach. In all actuality it wasn't really all that far away, but that incredibly pissed off marine between it and me, meant that it might as well of been on another planet.

Without the sword, this wasn't going to be easy, time for Plan B. I reached for my rifle. I felt incredibly stupid when I realized that I had already given it to private Yorhine. I felt even dumber when it then occurred to me that I'd also forgotten to give him any of the extra magazines that were now sitting completely useless within my leg compartments.

The giant in front of me finally ripped his axe out. As it fired back up he turned back towards me and showed me the instrument of my demise; the adamantium teeth of its chained cutting surface screamed at me; it seemed as if they were calling for my blood.

Frag that! I whipped out my side-arm and opened fire on his face. POP… POP… POP… As he advanced I watched every single bullet I fired bounce uselessly off his helmet, each impact barely causing his head to move at all. What could I do? POP… POP… I could tell he was smiling at me from beneath that helmet. POP… POP… POP… I was backing up now… POP… POP… CLICK…

I dropped the expended clip, slapped a fresh one in its place, and chambered another round. I took carful aim at his head again, knowing in my heart that I was now engaged in a hopelessly futile fight that could only end in one way; with him chopping me into tiny little pieces with that terrifying axe. But what was I going to do? Give up? Like I said, that's one thing you'll never find in this trooper; so just before he brought that axe down I pulled the trigger one more time…

BOOM! What the hell?

The behemoth stumbled towards me a step before catching himself…

Cha-Chick… BOOM!

He was ready for this one and only staggered slightly before turning around to face his attacker. As he did, I caught a glimpse of that damned Private Yorhine cocking my SK's shotgun in true Storm Trooper fashion.

Cha-Chick… BOOM!

The marine's shoulder kicked back as he shrugged off the shell and started towards Private Yorhine; he obviously knew that I was currently incapable of harming him in any way.

Cha-Chick… BOOM!

Private Yorhine started backing up as the marine marched straight for him. I guess he didn't know that the only way he stood any kind of chance in hell with a shotgun was to get as close as he could and fire it.

Cha-Chick… BOOM!

He backed step for step away from the advancing marine; maintaining a distance between him and the hulk that assured he would do nothing more than continue to piss him off with each and every shell fired.

Cha-Chick… BOOM!

What the frag was he doing?! Surely he could see that he needed to get closer to do any kind of damage! Then I saw it… He was drawing the marine towards him on purpose.

Cha-Chick… BOOM!

The dumb prick didn't even notice as he stepped right over my sword on his way to dismember Private Yorhine for his continued insolence. I started forward hoping I could retrieve it and kill the bastard before he could do the same to my new best friend.

Cha-Chick… BOOM!

I reached down and swooped up my sword and very carefully started catching up to my target. He was now quickly closing the distance between himself and his intended victim; I guess he knew just as well as I did that Yorhine was now out of ammunition and the shotgun in his hands was now nothing more than a very expensive paperweight.

Cha-Chick… CLICK…

Private Yorhine's eyes grew wide when he realized that he was now out of ammunition. I fully expected him to turn and run away, but I'll be damned if he didn't flip my rifle over, grab it round the barrel, and start swinging it at that advancing marine like he was some kind of madman.

He went right at the Marine as if he fully intended, and even believed, that he was actually going to beat him to death with the polycarbonate stock of my rifle. His hopes were dashed when the beast snatched it mid-swing and threw it right back at him.

My baby whizzed right by his head, and I winced as it bounced off a wall, and clattered loudly to the ground. Yorhine, now totally defenseless, did something absolutely amazing and brave beyond all measure; he stood his ground. He looked up to the towering beast and screamed at him, "Come get me you son of a bitch!"

The marine, more than willing to oblige; took a two handed grip and lifted his axe high overhead in preparation to annihilate the delightfully obstinate Yorhine. However, when he brought his massive arms down to kill the young soldier; he found that they'd somehow failed to bring along with them three very important things; the axe, and both hands that were supposed to of had a very firm hold on it.

In fact, his hands _did_ have a very firm hold on it; the only problem with that being, was currently, neither of them was still attached to his body. It took him a second or two to figure out the pure horrifying truth of his current situation; and I really don't think it fully hit him until he turned around and saw me standing there with my blessed sword shining brightly over the cauterized stumps that used to be his wrists.

I was just about to finish the job when out of nowhere his face exploded in a huge spray of skull fragments, ceramite, and brain matter; most of which splattered all over my face-plate. I was absolutely furious when I finally wiped enough of the gore clean of my visor to see what the hell had just happened.

It was Shrock, standing there smiling at me like an idiot. He had a two handed grip on that ridiculously oversized hand-bolter with smoke wafting lazily from the tip of its barrel. "That's four." He stated very simply.

I can't believe this prick; that's the second time he'd done this to me, "No, not this time you prick, Private Yorhine and I killed this one." I snapped my sword back into its place, "You can't keep coming in at the very last second, kill an enemy that's already been defeated, and expect it to count."

"I believe we've already had this discussion Lieutenant; if he's still moving, he's still alive. And he was very clearly, still moving, when…"

"Shut up the both of you!" Our banter was ended abruptly by Private Yorhine's sudden outburst, "Who the hell cares who killed him?! It doesn't matter!" He looked at us full of exasperation as if he were waiting for the two of us to figure something out. "Emperor help me! Am I the only one here who's the least bit concerned over the fact that there isn't any more gunfire coming from around that corner?!" He pointed towards the eerily quiet corner the marines had rounded just minutes before; where Hightower and his men should have still been actively engaging the last two or three of them.

He was right, there wasn't any more fighting. I ran down the hall, picked up my rifle, and slapped a fresh mag into place. I then quickly returned to find Yorhine had picked up one of the dead marine's side-arms, and now he too looked like a little boy holding his father's pistol.

I took point, pulling my rifle tightly to my shoulder I moved forward with Shrock and Yorhine close behind. As I crept closer a sinking feeling started to grow in the pit of my stomach. I very carefully poked my head around the corner; when I saw nothing, the feeling grew even greater.


End file.
